20th Feb 2008. Probably the most memorable (and revolutionary) day of mine in VJTI till date.
It was the week of our mid semester tests of the 6th semester. The CG (computer graphics) exam was scheduled in the afternoon- 3.30 to 4.30 pm to be precise.
VJTI is well known for its lack of faculty. The situation has reached its zenith, for we officially did not have a professor for this subject. We had some lectures taken by the high brain society of our class (yes you are reading right!!) The syllabus had been marked for the exam through a mutual agreement between the "student-professors" and the HOD. We were told that a certain temporary professor would set the paper. (Do not even think about asking why this temporary professor could not teach us in the first place. Rumours say that he attended the lectures taken by the students. Ever hears of "swapping roles"?)
The supervisor that day was a junior professor of the dept, not more than 2 years older than us.
Time: 3.30 pm. Question papers handed out. My eyes nearly popped out of my head as I saw the question paper. I couldn’t figure out a single question, let alone the answers! I looked around the class to observe the reactions of the other students. They looked as perplexed as me. I tried to think about what I could write in the exam, just so that my answer paper was not totally blank.
Time: 3.35 pm. Two of the toppers of my class walked in and said "Does anybody know the answers?” That broke the silence. People started murmuring about the absurdity of the questions. Murmurs soon turned into loud voices as we explained our situation to the supervisor. The classroom turned into a huge discussion room, and everyone started explaining to each other that the questions could not have been answered with our minimal knowledge of the subject. Other professors also came in to the classroom to add to the commotion. Whoever said that fish markets were noisy!
Time: 3.40 pm. The supervisor, obviously vexed, decided to bring some level of decorum into the "exam hall", which was now beginning to look like the Indian parliament. She gave us two options- either nobody write the exam, or everybody write. We decided that we should speak to the HOD as soon as possible. Along with our classmates in the neighbouring class, we marched down to the HOD's office. Obviously, the HOD could not speak to 50 students at once in her cabin (and she was probably intimidated at seeing us hording around her office) and told us to go back to class and she would join us shortly. So we marched right back to the class.
Time: 4.00 pm. By now, some of the students had already started discussing the solutions to the questions in the paper. The others started discussing about what we would tell the HOD when she came up. The verdict was that we demand a re-exam, drawn from the syllabus, nevertheless. As we waited further, some of the camera-savvy people started taking videos of people's reactions to an exam. "All questions out of syllabus" was written unanimously on the answer sheets and handed over to the supervisor. We realised that nobody was going to turn up to discuss the matter.
Time: 4.30 pm. As we left the exam hall, we realised that some of our classmates were bullied into writing the exam by some professors. Worse, some noticed that the absurd questions in the paper were actually printed in our textbook!
It was the week of our mid semester tests of the 6th semester. The CG (computer graphics) exam was scheduled in the afternoon- 3.30 to 4.30 pm to be precise.
VJTI is well known for its lack of faculty. The situation has reached its zenith, for we officially did not have a professor for this subject. We had some lectures taken by the high brain society of our class (yes you are reading right!!) The syllabus had been marked for the exam through a mutual agreement between the "student-professors" and the HOD. We were told that a certain temporary professor would set the paper. (Do not even think about asking why this temporary professor could not teach us in the first place. Rumours say that he attended the lectures taken by the students. Ever hears of "swapping roles"?)
The supervisor that day was a junior professor of the dept, not more than 2 years older than us.
Time: 3.30 pm. Question papers handed out. My eyes nearly popped out of my head as I saw the question paper. I couldn’t figure out a single question, let alone the answers! I looked around the class to observe the reactions of the other students. They looked as perplexed as me. I tried to think about what I could write in the exam, just so that my answer paper was not totally blank.
Time: 3.35 pm. Two of the toppers of my class walked in and said "Does anybody know the answers?” That broke the silence. People started murmuring about the absurdity of the questions. Murmurs soon turned into loud voices as we explained our situation to the supervisor. The classroom turned into a huge discussion room, and everyone started explaining to each other that the questions could not have been answered with our minimal knowledge of the subject. Other professors also came in to the classroom to add to the commotion. Whoever said that fish markets were noisy!
Time: 3.40 pm. The supervisor, obviously vexed, decided to bring some level of decorum into the "exam hall", which was now beginning to look like the Indian parliament. She gave us two options- either nobody write the exam, or everybody write. We decided that we should speak to the HOD as soon as possible. Along with our classmates in the neighbouring class, we marched down to the HOD's office. Obviously, the HOD could not speak to 50 students at once in her cabin (and she was probably intimidated at seeing us hording around her office) and told us to go back to class and she would join us shortly. So we marched right back to the class.
Time: 4.00 pm. By now, some of the students had already started discussing the solutions to the questions in the paper. The others started discussing about what we would tell the HOD when she came up. The verdict was that we demand a re-exam, drawn from the syllabus, nevertheless. As we waited further, some of the camera-savvy people started taking videos of people's reactions to an exam. "All questions out of syllabus" was written unanimously on the answer sheets and handed over to the supervisor. We realised that nobody was going to turn up to discuss the matter.
Time: 4.30 pm. As we left the exam hall, we realised that some of our classmates were bullied into writing the exam by some professors. Worse, some noticed that the absurd questions in the paper were actually printed in our textbook!
The picture shows our answer papers. As you may have guessed, the top right paper is mine. I didnt even bother to take the trouble of copying the questions.
If you think this was interesting, wait till I fill in about the final CG exam. Till then, sayonara!
If you think this was interesting, wait till I fill in about the final CG exam. Till then, sayonara!
